Worked 50 hour week fed up AIBU

[itsahardknocklife87]

Having just worked 50 hours this week and completed a ten hour shift today, I look on Facebook to discover that a friend who hasn't worked for years and is on benefits has had a weekend away. I like my job but I'm fed up of working so hard in a low paid job and still skint. Never see my kids or Husband and there isn't no option to stop working at least 49 hours a week. I had to do overtime this week to pay a Uber expensive garage bill (I live in a very rural area so car essential to get to work) AIBU to get upset that people who don't work on benefits and tax credits have a better quality of life?

But not everyone gets £20k a year in benefits! You only get that if you're living in places with higher rents. I got £13k a year. That's basically the same as a full time job on minimum wage. I certainly wasn't going on exotic holidays and the like on that money.

Go on benefits then if it's that fabulous? And why are you paying an Uber garage bill? I take it your DH drives for Uber?

The trouble with community work is that it would replace actual paid jobs. Look at the work program. People with PHD's etc stacking shelf's in supermarkets for massive companies to make even more profit "experience".

If it was truly not taking away paid jobs it would be an excellent idea. Our parks are quite neglected now and gardening has been shown to greatly benefit people with MH problems, so something like that would be great but ONLY if it is voluntary anything else is slave labour and if a company could profit and can take advantage, they will. .

@MrOnionsBumperRoller hahahahaha we don't have Uber here I mean Uber as another word to describe big

longtimelurkerhelen
I wasn’t meaning work for companies
.. rather something like the volunteer bank
.. people could work with the elderly , the isolated , in council run parks , food banks , listening services , council libraries , food banks .. they could have their police checks done and paid for by the scheme ( as is necessary for working with some members of the public ) .. they could be matched by skills and experience .
It wouldn’t be slave labourer because companies would not employ them , plus often benefits are actually very close to minimum wage jobs . See a couple of posts up where someone on benefits was saying they got 13 k a year - surely if you are able in mind and body .. and not in certain groups like a carer , then for 13 k a year people should give something back .. that seems fair ?
Yes , it’s not a lot , you may scrimp and save - just like people who work .

@Ooola

What you suggest would be good and be a benefit to the community and to the individuals, but only if no one is making a monetary profit and it doesn't replace paid jobs.

@Ooola

Someone posted this on another thread, it's very interesting and does show how people can be exploited when they are vunerable.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgfjUh2j2Mo

longtimelurkerhelen
Absolutely should not exploit
! Safeguards would need to be built in .

We're going to get to a situation where there aren't enough jobs for the people that want them

in my area, this is the reality. I applied for a single role for a company near me, minimum wage cleaning a tourist attraction for 32 hours a week. Got a phone call and i asked how many others had applied, I was one of over 700 applicants.
Applied for a role in the local Lloyds Pharmacy as a trainee, again I asked how many applicants, 500 or so they said and one lived 90 minutes drive, to work for £10ph 18hours a week. Had a call centre group interview last week. 8 people in my group. I asked the recruiter how many groups they're doing. We were the last group, they'd done 2 groups a day, everyday for nearly 3 weeks and only half the applicants got invited to those groups.

I'd guess a lot of people in recruitment will tell similar stories of similar numbers.

If you peer outside the London centric bubble, there's a different world out there. Every job as is in undated with applicants, suitable or not, they're forced to apply by Job Centre.

@Ooola that was me who got £13k a year, but that was because I'm a single parent, so I got child tax credits included. A single person with no children gets far less than that as they only get £70 a week JSA so it would be slave labour if they were not paid a proper wage.

Waxonwaxoff0
As I mentioned I dint think people in your position should have to work for benefits .

Also
I didn’t necessarily mean full time . So if they just worked 2 days a week for the benefit say .. That would mean benefits would be actually above minimum wage in reality .

OK, if your entire family income (if you have children and are over 25) is 17k then you should apply for benefits, because you would be eligible.
The 20k cap I referenced, if that was me I'd be fucked. My rent is 13k a year, so if I lost my job or got ill I'd actually be fucked. Not jetting off on weekends away. Which let's be honest, it was probably a bloody sun £7.50 weekend

Ooola

They did that in the 80s
Community Service for Dole claimants.
As I recall it cost more than it was worth as the "Workers" needed managing, supervisors, offices to assign job roles, supervisors, checks and balances etc etc etc. You couldn't just hand a claimant a broom at the job centre and send them on their way, it took logistics and organising.

The thing is @Ooola, there's no way a claimant (single with no kids) would be able to afford to do so though. I mentioned in my previous comment that I had to claim UC last year for two months (due to a family bereavement) and I only received £500 a month. Whilst I was grateful for this, the £500 was suppose to cover my rent which was £450, council tax, water rates and all other bills which was just impossible. There was no way I would of had money left over to put petrol in my car to drive to a volunteering job. I also live rurally so there are no charity shops/food shops that I could of volunteered in and just walked to instead, cutting out travel costs. I appreciate if people live near a city centre this wouldn't be a problem though.

I do agree, that people should work (if able bodied) for their benefits but I think it's unfair to penalise the claimants who receive the least rather than someone who is claiming around £20k a year (as pp have mentioned before).

I'm lucky I was only in that position for two months (always worked before that incident) and now I have a good paid job but I was shocked (as I'm sure a lot of working people who have been in the same position would be) that I had paid into the system for many years at around £200-£300 a month out of my earnings and I was only entitled to £500 a month which just about kept a roof over my head.

I can understand where OP is coming from. There’s nothing like working 50 hours to be confronted by someone not working at all.
They probably aren’t well off financially but they have free time which is also valuable and you are short on.
There’s a mum who I know from school (DDs are friends) who has chosen not to work as ‘she doesn’t like it’. I see now she is starting to struggle financially which she didn’t seem to before (general cost of living rise?). We live in a cheap area so I can’t imagine her rents are too bad (housing association) so she always seemed okay, recently she has started to complain about lack of money though. She will still however spent an obscene amount of money on her DD at xmas.
I don’t think she thinks working has anything to with her though and I can see her financial situation getting worse over the years. I don’t think she is planning ahead though.
In the end you are better off (for as shit as it seems).

@MyDcAreMarvel in those specific circumstances it would be about £340 per week. Maximum PIP is £149/wk and maximum ESA (with Severe Disability Addition) would be £193/wk. Plus Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support. Obviously that would be a claimant who hasn't switched to UC yet.

I've name changed for this as I am ashamed about how I abused the benefit system, albeit this was 20 plus years ago so maybe things have changed?

I absolutely abused the benefit system. Was better off than many of my working friends with children. I didn't pay any rent as it was paid for by my council. No council tax as on benefits. I think it was £3+ I paid in water rates per week. Yes I had to pay the same as anyone else re: gas/electric and other utilities. The major difference is that I had parent's who subsided everything to do with my child. School uniform - grandparents paid. School trips - same. Holidays paid for by my parents. So to any outsider of course it looked like I was living in the lap of luxury - I was - my parents basically pay rolled me.

What I didn't appreciate for that few years was that I was so short sighted - once my child reached an age whereby I couldn't get benefits and I hadn't been contributing into my pension I was going to be hugely disadvantaged - so I retrained, have a good job with a good pension now. I'm so ashamed of my mindset back then. I could never be jealous of anyone on benefits for a long period of time - ultimately they are going to be much worse off.

^^

@ohdobehavedahling agree with you completely. I understand why people compare their lives to others (will admit I have done it myself). It's only human nature at the end of the day but I would never envy someone on benefits as one day when their children have grown up they will need to find a job but will probably struggle due to being out of work for so many years. There is also the issue of not putting money into their pension.

I respect the fact that you have been honest and admitted to abusing the system. I appreciate not everyone does this and there are genuine people with disabilities etc who need the money but I think what a lot of people on here find frustrating (including myself) are the Mumsnetters who are oblivious to the fact that the system is occasionally abused, either that or they just don't want to admit it.

@ohdobehavedahling

What you describe is NOT benefit fraud.

‘It’s no where near £340 a week’

Actually my single sister with one child gets more than this per week! Maximum PIP, which then enhances her tax credits and housing benefit. Her weekly total comes to just over £400 per week and she then gets £500 per month child Maintenance. Also, her rent is council and only £82 per week!

For the majority of benefit claimants though, the system is not as generous as this.

As unfair as it seems from the outside, looking in I’m extremely grateful to not need to rely on benefits!

@ohdobehavedahling

That is not abusing the system. Helping single parents with young children is exactly what the system is for. I didn't work for 4 years until DS started school and stayed on benefits through choice. I got £150 a week after my rent was paid so it was hardly a lot but I managed on it.

The cost of childcare, plus travel costs wouldn't have made going to work worth it. From a moral point of view should I have worked? Maybe. But morals don't pay the bills unfortunately. Luckily I found a job the week after DS started school and have worked ever since.

ohdobehavedahling
You stayed home n benefits through CHOICE ???

Wow, this is so transparent.

Goady fuckers ahoy!